1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of disposable devices for anchoring bodily mounted drainage tubes such as urinary catheters and the like and, more particularly to a prefabricated device especially configured to facilitate its attachment to the drainage tube, or the like, and to the skin of a patient.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
During the course of certain medical procedures, and particularly, after surgery, it is necessary to place drainage devices to prevent accumulation of fluids in various bodily cavities or organs. One of the most common of these, of course, is the urinary catheter which is generally routed through the patient's urethral opening or superpubic ostomy site. It is important to anchor the catheter device so that there is little movement with respect to the insertion site to minimize irritation. In the case of the urinary catheter the tube normally has a very long length and is hooked to a rather large bag, so it is quite easy to catch the catheter and bag which may result in dislodgement of the catheter, which, in turn, causes great pain to the patient and possibly actual physical damage.
One common practice associated with immobilizing such things as catheter tubes has been to simply use several sections of adhesive tape to secure the tubing to the patient's body at a convenient spot between the insertion site and the collection bag. An alternative practice with respect to the urinary catheter has been to use a cloth retainer which fastens around the leg and has some form of cloth or plastic catheter holding device attached to it.
Both of these approaches, of course, have drawbacks. In the case of the tape, it is cumbersome to use and remove and also, because it is rigid, it does not move with the compliance modulus of the skin. The cloth wrapped around the leg has a tendency to slide downward as the leg naturally narrows from the proximal to the distal approaching the knee. This requires multiple adjustments to keep the leg band in position. In addition, the system does not provide for fixing the catheter tube in place and it tends to slip through the cloth loop and can possibly detach completely with a light pull. This is especially true in view of the fact that to reduce friction between the tube and the tissue it engages at the insertion site, the tube is normally made of reduced friction material such as a silicone plastic or the like or possibly, in the alternative, is coated with a hydrophilic material which causes the material to exhibit a non-stick surface. These developments represent progress with respect to the insertion of the catheter tube into the body in terms of ease and comfort to the patient. However, they also cause difficulties with respect to anchoring the tube because of the increased likelihood of slipping of the catheter tube with respect to the tape or cloth anchor device. The need still exists for a more positive support which retains the quality of being gentle to the patient.
Additional devices have also been proposed. A one-piece catheter anchoring tube or holder is disclosed by Johnson in U.S. Pat. No. 4,165,748, in which a piece of material has adhesive on one surface and is in the shape of a narrow bridge of the material that connects two larger spaced rectangular skin addressing segments. The device has two larger segments designed to adhere to the skin of the patient and the narrow or bridge portion uses the adhesive on the skin side directed to adhere to itself, forming a double fold layer. The double layer, in turn, wraps around the tube to be secured and is further provided with fasteners such as snap fasteners or Velcro.RTM. for securing the double thickness loop to itself after encircling the tube. The tube can be released and resecured but must rely on the friction of the tube encircling loop alone to anchor the tube longitudinally once fixed in position. Thus, the tube can be easily dislodged in the directional parallel to its length and slidably displaced while secured in the loop.
A further device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,677,250 to Thomas that discloses embodiments in which anchoring or skin adhering sections or patches are provided with integral tabs which are designed to wrap about the tubes to be secured, fixing them tangentially or parallel to the skin against the upper side of the skin anchoring patch. The tabs may permanently adhere to the surface of the tube in a non-reusable manner or, as in one embodiment, a pair of opposing tabs are provided which removably adhere to each other and slidably retain the tube or tubes therebeneath. This one-piece arrangement either does not allow for removal, replacement or adjustment of the tube or, in the case of the removable, readherable embodiment, suffers from the same ease of slidable tube displacement associated with other prior devices.